In the design of telecommunication networks, traffic is often required to be routed simultaneously along diverse paths in order to maintain a connection if a path is cut. In most instances, these diverse paths form rings that interconnect at many locations on the rings. When the network is designed, the rings can be set up to cost-effectively deliver service. The assignment of those rings can be critical and is often not addressed in network modeling tools.
While much effort has been made to efficiently assign equipment to rings once the rings are established, cost savings can be achieved by efficiently assigning rings in the network. The cost savings in choosing the correct ring structures may far outweigh benefits of efficiently packing sub-optimal ring structures. Thus a method is needed to cost-effectively assign rings in a network.